We had no choice, master, but to continue through the dungeon that
we had mysteriously been placed in. We had no way to go back, so we went forward. And
everywhere we traveled, we found creatures unlike any we had seen before. Our first
greeting came from an insect-like monster who couldn't be harmed by our blades, which I
found out to my serious detriment when it snatched me up with its pincers. We resorted to
our fists, our staffs, and fire to finally subdue it. We met a jailer in a torture chamber
whose blood burned like fire when it fell on us. In the next room, a creature with a
crab's claw and a fearsome helmet attacked us. Its forked tongue shot out at us and hit
Telaran squarely in the eye, which sent the man into such a rage I think pudding was about
all that was left of the monster when our half-elf was finally pulled away. He was blinded
in that eye now, and I gave the man my scarf to cover the wound. He was shaken badly by
the experience, I could tell, but no one questioned for a moment whether he could continue
to fight with us. Even were we to forget how well he had stood by us all this time, his
dispatch of the monster that blinded him served as proof of his abilities even with only
one eye.

We rested for a few hours after this and began to piece together
what was going on. Verence was the one who connected the strange magical abilities and
items each of these monsters we had seen with the enchanted animals - and that poor giant
bear - that we had fought many months ago. We again faced creatures that had been
transformed by magical items. The magician responsible for the earlier creatures we met
had managed to escape us. Was he now exacting his idea of revenge on us?

When we moved on, our breath caught and our magicians rested, we
found more of the same. We met a troll who could shoot flames from his eyes, which our
newcomer, Lorivar, brought down with a blinding series of punches. Now, finally, we found
a room a bit different from the others we had seen. This one had a fountain in the middle
of it, with trenches along the floor that were fed by its waters. The fountain was
inscribed with the words Drink from this fountain to restore wounds, but risk if not
wounded. Before we could even discuss it, Telaran dunked his head in the pool and
began to scream in pain as the water around his head bubbled as if it was boiling. I
pulled the half-elf out and we both ended up sprawled on the floor, Telaran still
screeching. When I pulled my scarf off his head, a mass of flesh fell off with it - his
old, wounded eye, as I was to piece together in the next minutes. In its place, a new,
perfectly healed eye had grown, and his screams subsided to gasps as he realized he could
see through both eyes again. His new eye is a different color than the old - he now has
one blue eye, one green, which gives the close-shaven half-elf an even stranger look than
before. But he's whole again, and didn't stop smiling for the next hour.

The rest of us drank, too, to heal, and only Nory (no surprise)
was reckless enough to try drinking from the fountain without wounds to heal. He reported
feeling strange, a little off, but none of us could find anything different. We watched
the little gnome closely for the rest of the day, but we can't tell what, if anything,
happened to him.

The final room we found in this dungeon held a fiery chasm, and
across the flames stood a minotaur and three orcs. We battled across the chasm and flew
arrows back and forth in hailstorms. Verence was wounded the worst of us all; he was lying
face down at the end of the battle, but we finally managed to defeat all four creatures.
And when we did, a statue at the far side of the room of a gold dragon spoke to us. It
told us we had completed the first part of the task set for us by Grynmuth the mutator -
surely, now, the same man who we had met in the bear cave. It gave us directions to the
stairs that would lead us out of the dungeon. We took followed the stairs as they became
steeper and steeper, eventually turning into a slide that we all tumbled down, ending up
in a pile at the exit of the same fun house we had entered. It seemed to us that at least
a full day had passed, but we found out that only minutes had gone by from the time we had
entered the house of illusions. This mutator has powerful magic, indeed.

We're resting again in the Adventurer's Club, all of us subdued
from the fun of the carnival that changed so drastically to threaten our lives. To be
honest, master, the sudden attack left me feeling sad; were we never to know a day of
peace and enjoyment again? I don't think Borreau understands why this left me so quiet,
although he's tried his best. But I count the shortening days until Midsummer, master, and
have faith that those days, at least, will bring us peace as we meet again in your home. I
remain, as always,

Your faithful servant,

Jade

The Jade Letters are the property and copyright of Beth Griese, not to be published or
redistributed without permission.